Friday, October 14, 2011

October 26 Event at Yale: "Suing Monsanto"

CT NOFA is co-hosting a talk titled "Suing Monsanto: intellectual property, genetic contamination, and farmers' rights" by Dan Ravicher, Executive Director of the Public Patent Foundation and Lecturer of Law at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. Dan Ravicher is leading the suit by organic seed growers, farmers and farmer organizations to prevent Monsanto from suing farmers or seed producers whose products are contaminated by Monsanto's patented genes. Come discuss issues in intellectual property and patent law as they apply to genetic modification.

CT NOFA announced its decision to join over 80 (at the time) farming, food and environmental organizations and individual farmers from around the country and the world, in suing Monsanto in Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association (OSGATA), et. al. v. Monsanto. In the past, the agricultural biotechnology corporation, has sued small farmers for patent infringement if their seeds or crops become contaminated by Monsanto's genetically modified crop varieties. The plaintiffs in the current case against Monsanto demanded a binding legal covenant to protect family farmers threatened by GMO contamination.

Ravicher is a registered patent attorney and was named to Managing Intellectual Property magazine's "50 Most Influential People in Intellectual Property." Watch this video on Youtube about his Landmark Gene Patenting Case.

This is the first of several events to raise awareness about GMOs in the food system that CT NOFA is hosting. Representative Richard Roy, the lead advocate for Connecticut GMO labeling laws will speak at our Annual Meeting on October 29. In March, Jeffrey Smith, author of Seeds of Deception and Genetic Roulette will be the keynote at the CT NOFA Winter Conference which has an entire GMO-track of workshops. For more information about the program, please contact the CT NOFA office, by e-mailing ctnofa@ctnofa.org or calling us at 203-888-5146.